Appliance accessory attachment means

ABSTRACT

A personal care appliance having structure for securing interchangeable styling attachments thereto comprising an elongated attachment with hook means at one end directed away from the attachment and slot means in the appliance to receive the hook means in a sliding overlapping engagement. A tab at the other end of the attachment is generally perpendicular to the hook and has a projection spaced from the tab end and a second slot is provided in the appliance with an internal recess to engage the tab and projection respectively thus locking the attachment in place. A spring means in the second slot is formed or shaped to bias the tab into locking position whereby the attachment may be slid to release the hook means and then pivoted about the tab end so the shaped spring also biases the tab from the slot to release the attachement.

[ June 24, 1975 APPLIANCE ACCESSORY ATTACHMENT MEANS [75] Inventor: William Robert Hicks, Spencerport,

[73] Assignee: General Electric Company,

Bridgeport, Conn.

[22] Filed: May 15, 1974 [21 Appl. No.: 469,961

Primary Examiner-G. E. McNeill Attorney, Agent, or Firm-John F. Cullen; George R. Powers; Leonard J. Platt [5 7 ABSTRACT A personal care appliance having structure for securing interchangeable styling attachments thereto comprising an elongated attachment with hook means at one end directed away from the attachment and slot means in the appliance to receive the hook means in a sliding overlapping engagement. A tab at the other end of the attachment is generally perpendicular to the hook and has a projection spaced from the tab end and a second slot is provided in the appliance with an internal recess to engage the tab and projection respectively thus locking the attachment in place. A spring means in the second slot is formed or shaped to bias the tab into locking position whereby the attachment may be slid to release the hook means and then pivoted about the tab end so the shaped spring also biases the tab from the slot to release the attachement.

7 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention:

The invention herein pertains to a personal care appliance such as a hair dryer with structure for securing interchangeable styling attachments whereby the attachment hooks at one end tothe appliance and is slid into position on the appliance. A tab on the other end is internally received in the appliance to latch the attachment securely thereto under a spring means. The attachment is easily and quickly removed by sliding it to disengage the hook means and then rotating it whereby the same spring means biases the tab from the slot releasing the attachment.

2. Description of the Prior Art:

With the advent of the various personal care appliances such as hair dryers, various comb, curling, detangling, and other styling attachments are provided to hook over the air outlet whereby the air is directed through the attachment for different styling characteristics. The attachments may be secured by various means such as hooking at a suitable place in the appliance and many times a living hinge is snapped over an outer edge like a distributor cap is snapped onto the distributor body in an automobile engine. The various means of assembling the numerous attachments to the dryer have some disadvantages such as high cost if expensive clips or push buttons are used, inconvenience when it requires pushing bottons and levers, a poor appearance when slots or grooves in the sides of the dryer are necessary to secure parts, and user discomfort when hair catches in various external tabs. Prior art constructions have not provided an inexpensive, clean, and simple attachment structure that avoids the above disadvantages and offers an uncluttered appearance to the dryer itself whether attached or not.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly described, the invention is directed to an appliance accessory attachment arrangement for securing interchangeable styling attachments to the appliance. It comprises an elongated attachment with hook means at one end directed away from the attachment and coacting slot means in the appliance to receive the hook means in sliding overlapping engagement. A tab at the other end of the attachment is generally perpendicular to the hook means and has a projection spaced from the tab end. A second slot, disposed completely within the appliance, receives the tab and a recess within the slot engages the tab projection to lock the attachment in place under the bias of a shaped spring. The attach ment is removed by merely sliding it to release the hook means and then pivoting the attachment about the tab end so that the shaped spring also biases the tab from the slot to release the attachment. Various refinements of multi hooks and track means for easy sliding define the actual preferred arrangement. Thus, the main object of the invention is to provide an improved structure for securing interchangeable styling attachments to a personal care appliance that is easily attached and removed in an uncluttered arrangement with no exter nal projecting parts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is an exploded and rotated perspective view of a purse-type hair dryer with a typical comb attachment in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-section showing the assembly of the attachment comb to the appliance; and

FIG. 3 is a view, similar to FIG. 2, showing the removal of the attachment comb from the appliance.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The invention will be described in connection with a personal care appliance such as a typical hair dryer although it has applicability to any functionally equivalent attachment structure in personal care appliances.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a generally purseshaped high output power dryer 10 that is designed to be grasped in one hand generally at the handle end and manipulated around the head as desired. Such dryers are generally well-known and include an air inlet 12, an internal fan and heating means, not shown, from which cool, warm, or hot air is discharged through outlet 14. In order to style the hair for detangling, combing, curling, brushing, or concentrating the air, various attachments have been designed to be affixed to outlet 14 such as a typical comb structure 16. These are generally clamped to the outlet in any suitable fashion such as fitting over the outlet and clamping with a tab 18 or similar member over the end of the dryer 10. The dis advantage'is that the tab 18 usually is external or sticking out along the end of the dryer and is subject to catching the hair of the user and getting caught therein. To protect the user from the internal heating means, a suitable decorative grill 20 is disposed over the air outlet and may consist of screen means or, as shown, rails or bars spaced closely enough to prevent the insertion of fingers or dangerous objects.

In order to overcome the high cost of attachment clips and push buttons as well as their inconvenience and to present a pleasing appearance with no external projections to catch hair or other objects when used with and without an attachment, the invention provides a simple yet effective attachment means that avoids the aforementioned disadvantages. To this end, various attachments are all provided with the same structure to be described so the various styling attachments are interchangeable with the common dryer 10. Generally, the attachments are elongated devices such as comb l6 and, in accordance with the invention, its framesupporting structure 22 is provided with spaced hook means 24 at one end which hook means is directed away from the attachment as shown in FIG. 1. To cooperate with the hook means, the grill 20 in the appliance may be formed to provide coacting slot means 26 to receive the hook means in a sliding overlapping engagement where the end of the attachment, as shown in FIG. 2, is inserted with the hooks in the slots and then slid into the overlapped abutting connection shown. Any suitable manner of hooks may serve the purpose to enter an appropriate slot and the dual arrangement in FIG. 1 is one form that works well. The hook 24 in slot 26 means thus engages and locks in place the left end of the attachment as shown in FIG. 2. In order to engage the right end, the attachment is provided with a preferably flat tab 18 extending generally perpendicularto the hook between side rails 19 as shown and, for latching purposes, the tab has a projection 21 in the form of a ridge disposed substantially midway of the tab and across the complete width thereof to provide a large locking surface as will be explained. As presently shown and described, the appliance and attachment parts fit together along a generally flat surface at outlet 14 whose grill 20 forms a sliding track means therebetween. By suitably forming the appliance grill and the attachment. the sliding track means can take the form of the spaced rails 19 each having a separate hook 24 on the one end thereof.

To avoid unslightly projections, an opening in the form of a second transverse slot 32 is formed entirely within the boundaries of the appliance to receive the entire tab in a finished appearance. This slot extends between the rails 19 and contains an internal wide recess 34 in the wall of the appliance as shown in FIG. 2. It will be seen that the projection 21 cooperates with recess 34 to provide a large positive locking surface to firmly lock the attachment in position. By forming the parts of plastic, the tab 18 is resilient enough to give a little and permit the projection 21 to snap into recess 34 although the sliding motion of the hooks within the coacting slot 26 also guarantees this latching arrangement. In order to maintain the attachment locked in place, a suitably formed spring 36 is disposed in the slot 32 and is shaped to bias the tab into locking position with projection 21 in recess 34 and the attachment snuggly and tightly fitting against the outlet 14. As shown in FIG. 2, the parts are assembled by inserting the hooks 24 in slot 26, sliding the attachment 16 into hookengaging or overlapping position and then pushing the tab into second slot 32 where it snaps into locking position and is held by the spring bias and the parts are thus secured firmly together with no external projections.

In order to remove the attachment, it is slid to the right as shown in FIG. 3 to disengage hooks 24 and the attachment then dropped at the left end to pivot about the tab end 38 which bears against the appliance wall as seen in FIG. 3. In this position, the same internal shaped spring that retained the parts together through the latching means now performs the additional and opposite function of biasing the tab from the slot to positively release the attachment. By shaping the spring so it contacts the tab below the tab end as shown in FIG. 3, the spring force is applied below the pivot 38 so that it increases the bias on the tab when it is pivoted from the latched position not shown but occurring between FIGS. 2 and 3 as is obvious and so increases the force so the same spring then tends to release the attachment.

The attachment means described permits an easy and positive latching structure with no external projections whatever to catch anything and yet it retains the dryer with its smooth, uncluttered and pleasing lines as shown in FIG. 1. It thus overcomes'the cost, inconvenience, appearance, and discomfort and disadvantages previously noted.

While there has been described a preferred form of the invention, obvious equivalent variations are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practised otherwise than as specifically described, and the claims are intended to cover such equivalent variations.

I claim:

1. In a personal care appliance, structure securing interchangeable styling attachments thereto comprising,

an elongated attachment with hook means at one end directed away therefrom,

a tab at the other end generally perpendicular to the hook having a projection spaced from the tab end,

slot means in said appliance receiving said hook means in sliding overlapping engagement,

a second slot within said appliance and a recess therein to engage the tab and projection respectively locking the attachment in place, spring means in said second slot shaped to bias the tab into locking position,

whereby the attachment may be slid releasing the hook means and then pivoted about the tab end so the shaped spring then biases the tab from the slot to release the attachment.

2. Apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the elongated attachment and appliance fit together along a flat surface therebetween.

3. Apparatus as described in claim 2 wherein the flat surface between the parts forms sliding track means therebetween.

4. Apparatus as described in claim 3 wherein the sliding track means is formed of spaced rails, each with a separate hook thereon.

5. Apparatus as described in claim 4 wherein the second slot is a transverse slot extending between said rails and said recess isdisposed internally of said slot in the wall of said appliance.

6. Apparatus as described in claim 5 wherein said tab is flat and extends between said rails and said projection is a ridge substantially midway of the tab and across the width thereof to provide a large locking surface.

7. Apparatus as described in claim 6 wherein said shaped spring contacts said tab below the tab end to increase the bias on said tab on pivoting about the tab 

1. In a personal care appliance, structure securing interchangeable styling attachments thereto comprising, an elongated attachment with hook means at one end directed away therefrom, a tab at the other end generally perpendicular to the hook having a projection spaced from the tab end, slot means in said appliance receiving said hook means in sliding overlapping engagement, a second slot within said appliance and a recess therein to engage the tab and projection respectively locking the attachment in place, spring means in said second slot shaped to bias the tab into locking position, whereby the attachment may be slid releasing the hook means and then pivoted About the tab end so the shaped spring then biases the tab from the slot to release the attachment.
 2. Apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the elongated attachment and appliance fit together along a flat surface therebetween.
 3. Apparatus as described in claim 2 wherein the flat surface between the parts forms sliding track means therebetween.
 4. Apparatus as described in claim 3 wherein the sliding track means is formed of spaced rails, each with a separate hook thereon.
 5. Apparatus as described in claim 4 wherein the second slot is a transverse slot extending between said rails and said recess is disposed internally of said slot in the wall of said appliance.
 6. Apparatus as described in claim 5 wherein said tab is flat and extends between said rails and said projection is a ridge substantially midway of the tab and across the width thereof to provide a large locking surface.
 7. Apparatus as described in claim 6 wherein said shaped spring contacts said tab below the tab end to increase the bias on said tab on pivoting about the tab end. 